Leading presidential hopeful López Obrador seeks to broaden his appeal and soften his reputation as a hot-headed populist _________________________________________________________ MEXICO CITY—Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a nationalist who built his career blocking oil wells and railing against the political elite, is trying a third time to achieve what he failed to do twice before: win the Mexican presidency. The 64-year-old leftist candidate is leading in the polls ahead of the July 1 election after trying to reinvent himself with a new party, unlikely allies and as a champion of national unity who doesn’t threaten Mexico’s traditional economic powers. Although once a...

West Virginia's Sen. Joe Manchin (D.) criticized House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) after being shown a clip of her characterizing President Donald Trump's immigration plan as a way to "Make America White Again." CNN's "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper used the Pelosi clip to start a discussion on immigration. "Let me just say what I said last night: that plan is a campaign to make America white again," Pelosi said. "You know what, we don't need that type of rhetoric on either side, from Nancy, Paul Ryan or anybody else," Manchin said. Manchin proceeded to say...

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) believes the recent three-day government shutdown and the deal to end it on Monday gave Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and other illegal immigrant Dreamers “a better chance” of getting a pathway to citizenship. Flake has been working with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) on a bill that would give a “12-year pathway to citizenship for about 2 million” illegal immigrant Dreamers and “legal status for their parents.” On Monday, Senate Democrats agreed to a three-week spending bill in exchange for a DACA vote before February 8. “I do think that...

He has failed to pass legislation, under a legal cloud and facing threats of impeachment, but that's not the end of the story. Donald Trump is on a high, writes Bruce Wolpe. Donald Trump is the most unpopular president at this stage of his tenure than any president in modern American history. But that's not the end of the story. He has not secured passage of one major piece of legislation through Congress, failing spectacularly in his efforts to repeal Obamacare. He has presided over a precipitous decline in America's standing in the world, and has engaged in ugly exchanges...

I've spent my career as an advocate for economic justice, fighting for basic fairness for working families. It wasn't until this past year that I began fighting for my own life. It's that fight that led me to get arrested protesting the Republican tax plan in Washington, and that led me into debating it with Sen. Jeff Flake at 30,000 feet in the air on my way home. I never thought I'd be in this position. A year ago, I was healthy, taking morning runs on the California coast and looking forward to a new life with my newborn son,...

Hillary: Trump, China should soften up on North Korea Hillary Clinton used a conference in Beijing to blast both President Trump and the Chinese over their stance toward North Korea — saying it needs to soften up soon before things get out of hand and nuclear war breaks out. Serving as the keynote speaker at Caijing Magazine’s three-day annual conference on Tuesday, the former secretary of state called on Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to avoid “bluster” and “personal taunts” when dealing with Pyongyang, according to Bloomberg. She reportedly criticized the Trump administration for retreating from diplomacy in recent...

NEW YORK (AP) — Two of John Lewis’ books have sold out on Amazon after the Democratic congressman claimed the top spots on the retailer’s best-seller list. Sales of the civil rights leader’s graphic novel “March” and his 2015 memoir “Walking With the Wind” skyrocketed following his feud with President-elect Donald Trump over the Martin Luther King Jr.

The three networks on Thursday night immediately derided Donald Trump’s “dark speech” as one coming from a “vengeful” “demagogue.” On NBC, Tom Brokaw allowed that “some” will see Trump as on a “white horse who will lead them to some kind of sanctuary and then pull the drawbridge up.” But he sneered, “Others looking in are going to see someone they will only think as a demagogue of some kind.” Chuck Todd labeled, “I thought it was an extraordinarily dark speech.” Republican operative Nicolle Wallace lamented, “We are now represented as a party by a man who believes in protectionism,...

Pres. Obama said that Nordic countries would make the world “more secure and more prosperous” if "we" would just let them run things. Welcoming the leaders of Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland to the White House on Friday, Obama said that, if “we” let Nordic countries control the world, that “they could clean things up”: “So I really do believe that the world would be more secure and more prosperous if we just had more partners like our Nordic countries. There have been times where I’ve said, why don’t we just put all these small countries in charge for...

In many ways, Donald Trump's political talking points are Orwellian at best. His constant insistence that the U.S. is not "winning" is being repeated with such pneumatic regularity that voters believe it. Or if they don't yet, they may soon. Whether we are getting killed on trade or being flooded with illegal immigrants, Donald Trump has been making arguments that were, in part, true thirty years ago, but most certainly not today. The "INGSOC" slogans in Orwell's epic dystopian novel, "1984": "War is Peace" "Freedom is Slavery" "Ignorance is Strength" Would fit nicely among Trump's litany of incongruous phrases: "The...

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox on Friday kept up his withering criticism of Donald Trump, saying the GOP front-runner reminds him of Adolf Hitler. "Today, he's going to take that nation (U.S.) back to the old days of conflict, war and everything. I mean, he reminds me of Hitler. That's the way he started speaking," Fox told CNN's Anderson Cooper in a phone interview on "Anderson Cooper 360." "He has offended Mexico, Mexicans, (and) immigrants. He has offended the Pope. He has offended the Chinese. He's offended everybody." Fox's comments come one day after he delivered a scathing response on...

Thursday on ABCâ€™s â€śThe View,â€ť co-host Raven-SymonĂ¨ declared she would leave the United States for Canada if a Republican is â€śnominated.â€ť SymonĂ¨ said, â€śMy confession for this election is if any Republican gets nominated, Iâ€™m gonna move to Canada with my entire family. Is that bad?â€ť When pressed she added, â€śI already have my ticket â€¦ No, I literally bought my ticket, I swear.â€ť

It is no secret that Glenn Beck is a staunch advocate for Ted Cruz. The relationship between Beck and Cruz is one of mutual financial benefit. However, today Beck shifted his advocacy to another level of scheme with an outright, and already debunked, lie sent out to his twitter followers:

Barack Obama also trashes working class white males in the interview. The New York Times reported: President Obama said in a radio interview airing on Monday that Donald J. Trump, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, is exploiting the resentment and anxieties of working-class men to boost his campaign. Mr. Obama also argued that some of the scorn directed at him personally stems from the fact that he is the first African-American to hold the White House. Demographic changes and economic stresses, including "flatlining" wages and incomes, have meant that "particularly blue-collar men have had a lot of...

Updated | In an effort to delay passage of a bipartisan budget deal, Senator Rand Paul began a filibuster around 3 p.m. on Thursday. The effort was expected to continue through 1 a.m. on Friday, but ended after speaking for only 18 minutes and 40 seconds, according to MSNBC. It turns out the Republican senator from Kentucky spoke against the budget bill only until the time the Senate was to vote on the deal. The Senate would have allowed Paul to continue speaking until midnight, but only if he didn't sit down or use the restroom, a physically exhausting feat if nothing else. At midnight,...

DENVER -- in the face to conservatives." Likely speaker of the House Paul Ryan has said the process that created it "stinks." But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is the first Republican to pledge outright that he'll try to scutter the compromise debt limit bill designed to kick any tough new vote into 2017. "I will filibuster the new debt ceiling bill," Paul said at an event on the University of Colorado's Denver campus. "It is horrible, it's hard for me not to use profanity describing it." Paul also called the bill a "steaming pile of legislation," and urged fellow Republicans...

The Gog of Turkey, president Recep Tayyip ErdoÄźan, said his country could not endure Russian violations any longer of its airspace in its campaign in Syria. Gog y Magog Russian involvement in the 4Â˝-year-old Syrian civil war seems to be escalating, with NATOÂ’s secretary general confirming Tuesday a second incursion by Russian planes into Turkish airspace and saying Russian ground troops were in Syria as well. The first violation of TurkeyÂ’s airspace is reported to have happened Saturday. The second was Sunday, officials said. Now even CNN says: The tension between Russia and Turkey, however, appears to be escalating. The...

Friday at the White House press briefing, when press secretary Josh Earnest was asked about the controversy over Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump ignoring a town hall audience member suggesting President Barack Obama is Muslim, he used the opportunity to say he was not surprised, because “offensive views” are the “priorities of today’s Republican party.”

An obligatory follow-up to last nightâ€™s post. Sounds like my theory was largely correct: Itâ€™s not just his personal falling-out with Palin, which he elaborates on in his new Facebook post, or her embrace of the progressive Trump thatâ€™s bothering him, itâ€™s the whole damned discombobulating phenomenon of Trumpmania among the tea party and its sympathizers.Especially its sympathizers in conservative talk radio. I do not understand her position and love of Trump. He is clearly a progressive, not a small government constitutionalistâ€¦But he is also a bully, sexist, cruel, an ego manic and narcissist in ways that makes Barack...